Bobby Blakey

Will you join me in praying for the older men & women of the church? Today it seems like older congregations are thought of as “dead” or “dying.” Yet, in Titus 2, the older men and women are examples for and teach the younger! Let’s pray for a legacy of faith!

Did anyone else miss John MacArthur at this year’s Shepherds Conference? I thank God for his legacy of preaching the Word like it matters.

I was there when Jubilant Sykes sang one Easter Sunday. My college roommate and I arrived at the church service so early in the morning we were in the 3rd or 4th row of pews. It was the closest I could remember being to this stage before. It was like he was right in front of us. When Jubilant would start to sing his voice was so soft, like a whisper. You leaned forward. Was his mic working? At any moment in the song it seemed he could go so low or so high. I had never heard anyone sing with such range before. It seemed effortless. This Easter, Jubilant was singing “Were You There?” This song, like “Mary Did You Know?” at Christmas, gets you thinking about specific moments in the life of Jesus. It brings back memories of what you have read about him. It stirs up emotions of what he suffered for us. As the song progresses and the orchestra comes in, Jubilant is now melodiously bellowing. He reaches the climax of “sometimes I feel like shouting Glory, GLORY! GLORY-AYYYYY!” There is a power to his singing that is hard to feel in a video or communicate with words. At that moment it seems like the resurrection of Jesus just happened and we are going to see him shining in all of his holy splendor. And then suddenly it is over. Jubilant looks up, above everyone in the auditorium. There is a delight in his eyes as if he sees something, something he was looking for. And then he is gone, walking off the stage, before the echoes of his voice have stopped reverberating in our hearts. I was there. Sometimes I feel like I am there again.

@_TSSinclair We don’t have a written philosophy but let me know if you want to come by for a visit and I could show you around!

Does your church have a philosophy of administration or facilities? I’d love to read it.

This week our church office is closed for rest after a busy summer season. Because of this, I was not thinking about a meeting I had with two men. But I received this text at the time. “We are in the Lobby.” Immediately, I felt my face turn red with embarrassment, stopped the study I was doing and drove to the church office. “How did they even get inside if the doors are closed?” One of the men has been having a very hard time and quoted a Scripture that described how he had been feeling. He was surprised when I knew it was Psalm 32. We opened up our Bibles and read from the chapter together. By the end of our conversation, the man did what Psalm 32:5 says: “I acknowledge my sin to you, And I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “is ill confess my transgressions to the LORD,” And you forgave the iniquity of my sin.” Hearing this man pray was profound. It was like God was opening up his heart right there in my office… …Even when the doors were closed. God will cause the seed of the gospel to grow, though we may not know how.

I thought John MacArthur was going to die in the fall of 1998. I remember they said he had blood clots in his lungs. At that time, I was a freshmen at The Master’s College. I was eager to sit under his teaching again because I had grown up going to Grace Community Church as a child. I remembered what it was like hearing John MacArthur preach a sermon with thousands of people listening silently all around you. The service would end. The ushers would open up the doors. Stephen Sturz would start playing the organ. As a boy, with the people moving about and the organ whirling, I remember the feeling of God among us. It didn’t feel like a man had just taught a sermon, but like we had heard the very words of God. So, I was sad to come to my first semester of college and John MacArthur was not preaching on Sundays. When he returned to the pulpit, that would rise up out of the ground, he preached like the sermon had been caged up within him. He preached about the lying of the president. I remember he said his name, “Bill Clinton.” I remember he quoted his lie “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.” John MacArthur made it clear that if you were a liar, you were not afraid to do any kind of evil because you thought you could cover it up with your lies. He explained from Romans 1 how God was giving America over to their sin. He explained how the people approved of our president because we were the same sort of liars, we loved to have it so. Towards the end of John MacArthur’s first sermon back, he did one of my favorite things about his preaching. He said this is just the introduction. If you really want to hear the sermon come back next week. I was waiting in the pew next Sunday when he took us to Jeremiah 5. “Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem… If you can find a man who seeks the truth… They say “As the Lord lives” yet swear falsely… They are like lusty stallions neighing after their neighbors wives” I remember reading the end of the chapter: “Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the LORD, and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this?” An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule at their direction; my people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes?” Too soon the people were moving. The organ was whirling. I sat in awe because I had heard the word of the Lord. I hear it still.

Please PRAY for all the new believers in Jesus coming home from our high school camp! PRAY as they tell their families! PRAY as they learn how to walk by the Spirit! This is their first full day back at home… PRAY for a revival of what it means to have eternal life!

Eternal Life is not just going to heaven when you die… Eternal Life is knowing God NOW! “And this is Eternal Life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” ~John 17:3

Jesus came to save sinners like me!

Jesus forgave me for all my sins!

Husbands & Fathers Business Owners & Bosses Presidents & Governors Pastors & Teachers We are all just middle management All authority in heaven and on earth belongs to Jesus!

Thankful to be with my brothers (literally and figuratively) at @compasshb this weekend. Please pray for me as I preach from Genesis 4 this morning and show how the blood of Christ speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

Greetings from Uganda! I am here teaching 1st Thessalonians to 30 future pastors! During the week, I’ve wondered how class is going for the students. Today they offered to slaughter a chicken as a down payment that I would have to return to Uganda and teach them again!

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. ~Jeremiah 29:11 After 70 years in Babylon, God kept his promise to bring his people back. God knows the future ☑️ God keeps his promises ☑️

@GreggJKite One thing that helps me is I start typing out the text of Scripture I am preaching from. Sermons don’t start with a blank page, they start from a page already written!

Speaking of sermon prep times, I am really struggling lately. I find myself sitting in front of the blinking cursor more often than not. I can't seem to get all my thoughts organized. Any tips from other pastors on how to get over a mental block like that?

Walking through Barnes & Noble Booksellers there are many sections of books: History. Current Events. Fiction. Non-Fiction. Have you ever seen the Future section?! You actually have… it’s the section labeled: Bibles! #prophecy

I never paid close enough attention to Isaiah 2:1-5 until now: HE shall judge the nations… He shall DECIDE which is same word as “reason” in 1:18… In the days to come, He will settle the disputes for many people… THERE SHALL BE NO MORE WAR! #JESUS2024

“Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD: “though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow…” ~Isaiah 1:18 YHWH is salvation!

If Jesus thought of the books of the OT in the tripartite order (and see Law, Prophets, and Psalms in Luke 24:44, cf. also Luke 11:49–51//), why would followers of Jesus organize the OT books some other way?